The talented developer of Ashore Mohammad AlArkobi shared his experiences, and future thoughts on developing his game.
Thank you for your time, we have played your Game Ashore and we are impressed that you developed on your own. What was the story of Ashore and how did you develop it?
Ashore started as a personal project for me and my cousin, we play similar games online and there were always one or more things about each game that really annoyed us, around 2 years ago I thought why not make a game that had everything we loved about all these games, I already have a degree in games and he’s a programmer! I used Unity, it was perfect for what I was trying to make and it seemed like a good place to start.
Your game Ashore won the best game design award at the world games expo, how did you feel?
Great, it was my first participation and I got to meet you, Ameen, Tariq and the other great devs/friends. I never got involved or even knew about the gaming communities in the Middle east, until Tariq Mokhtar was kind enough to tell me and invite me to their monthly meetings in Riyadh. Afterwards I tried to make sure I get involved in all communities including the ones in Bahrain which I’m very happy to be part of.
Working on the game must have been challenging.
Working for a whole year, full time and alone is extremely challenging from all aspects such as time, effort and of course financial wise, however it did not matter to me personally at the time because I have prepared for all obstacles that I could predict and made sure I work according to plan, schedule with deadlines and all.
Thankfully it worked out very well at the end.
The music of Ashore is captivating . How did you decide that that was the sound you wanted for your game?
Years before I decided to make Ashore I came across a video on YouTube of someone playing a very interesting instrument named “Handpan”, I loved the sounds. Fast forward few years later, I contacted an amazing musician named Sam Mahar who had videos of himself playing his music using the Handpan instrument. I asked him if he was interested in making a couple of tracks for my game, I recorded few gameplay videos and sent it to him, even on a very tight budget he was kind enough to create few great soundtracks for Ashore.
How did you get into Game development?
Games were always an escape from the real world to me, a portal to another world. I always wanted to take ideas and make them into worlds that others can experience and hopefully enjoy, It’s the experience and emotional roller-coaster that games can provide that got me very interested.
You studied at SAE in Dubai, why did you choose it?
Yes, at the time it was the best option & I needed to learn how to program. I am not a fan of coding, I prefer the creative aspects more but I learned a lot from SAE and I continue to use the skills I learned there.
Interestingly you still go back to SAE but this time as a teacher.
It was very strange at first, because I was a student in the previous semester and a lecturer in the next one. As a student I have been involved in mentor-ship programs and I have been doing workshops, so teaching on its own was fine. The strange part was the responsibilities I had, “it was normal” but with the mindset of a student. I have to create the module’s content? I have to grade? I should care if a student is late? I remember a student came up to me and asked if he was allowed to leave early, I got very confused to why even ask? Oh yes I’m a lecturer, I should definitely care about that now. I enjoy teaching, and love being a mentor.
Your work is not constrained into games and games development, what can you tell us about that?
Short answer, We all do things we enjoy, and I enjoy doing way too many things.
Long answer, The work I share and present publicly is more Art & Design related because I’d like to pursue my career in related fields. I believe its the only thing I’d hate the least when I have to wake up early because of it, I focused on games because games are a combination of different types of art.
You have also engaged in motion leap technology, what made you take the step towards adopting it for art?
About a year ago I made new series of photos “Symmetry in nature” and an Art gallery (L’ART PUR) was interested in presenting the work, in the same meeting they have told me about an upcoming event (Saudi design week) the topic of the event was motion. They’ve asked me if I had any art work related to the topic, and the only thing that came to mind was a previous project I’ve done which is a software that plays 4 different music instruments based on your hand movement. Basically an ultra-sonic sensor that calculates the distance and decides what note to play, I thought of doing something similar but more ‘artistic’ and wanted to create something that shows the effect of your hand motion and what better way to do so than fluid materials! So I combined leap motion (IR sensor) to detect the hand motion and a fluid simulator using Unity game engine.
I enjoy making things in general, mainly Art and that’s because I think we need to leave a mark; a new type of Art, we have access to too much why not make use of it!
If they made use of animal’s hair to make a brush and paint on stones and walls; why am I not making use of sensors and game engines to create Art!
Is there a future for Ashore? An Expansion or a sequel?
I like to plan a year ahead, and for 2018 Ashore is not in the list. Ashore is very optimized and very dynamic when it comes to adding and modifying things in the game, so it’s really easy to add any additional content. The game by no means perfect, but in my opinion its a perfect first official game to start my CV with.
So what is next after Ashore?
So far no idea! I worked on very different projects (not games related) along side Ashore, so its really hard for me to say where I’m headed after this.
I guess it depends on what comes my way next.
We wish you all the best on your coming ventures and look forward to seeing what you will come up with.
Get in touch with Mohammad AlArkobi on his Twitter account (@M7md_Ark)
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